Some of my favourite jewellery – I rarely wear

Ok – here’s the thing – I love jewellery – well obviously. I enjoy designing jewellery and am always thrilled to bits when people buy and wear it and leave nice comments. It may come as a surprise to you, but I rarely wear jewellery – I am pretty bad with it. I simply forget to put it on. I have finally rings that fit my skinny fingers, because I made them myself (except my wedding ring), but because I work a lot with clay (or tidy the kitchen) I don’t really wear them. Wearing earrings is always a bit of a faff, because my three ear holes are pretty much closed up, so when I attempt to put earrings on, it hurts! I mainly make an effort when I go out to networking events, meet people, have customers over at our home or at craft fairs. And mostly I tend to wear pendants, because they weigh less.

Every marketing guru will tell you that if you make jewellery, you have to wear your own creations – it’s the cheapest form of advertising your wares. And of course I do that. But this means I never really get to wear all the lovely jewellery I received as presents from my family. I recently had a look at my jewellery ,which needs a thorough tidying as some is in the gift boxes it came in and some is just scattered around in small jewellery boxes.I re-discovered some gorgeous pieces by other jewellery designers, some whose name I simply don’t know.

So with no further ado – here are some of my favourite pieces made by other designers.

It won’t come as a surprise to you that a lot of pieces do feature cats.

Lea Stein cat brooch – present from my mum.

This adorable cat brooch was a birthday present from my mother who had great taste and always managed to find jewellery I really like. Only years later I found out who designed this collectable piece – French designer Lea Stein, who specialises in animal jewellery. It’s quite big – 10cm high and is made from celluloid.

Silver cat brooch from Mexico – bought by my dad.

Another cat brooch – this one was a Christmas gift from my dad. He found it at a flea market in Cologne. I am not 100% sure if this is silver – but it’s stamped Mexico 925. So at least I know this one originates from Mexico.

Lapis Lazuli is one of my favourite semi-precious stones – because I love blue. My husband bought this necklace and earring set as a wedding present in 2007 from Past Times. I have no idea if it is Sterling Silver. I suspect it’s not, maybe the ear wires are. It’s a lovely set and it means a lot to me, I just have to be aware of the clasp – it can easily get undone as it’s a simple hook design.

These pretty dichroic glass earrings are also a gift from my husband – I can’t remember the occasion, it might have been a surprise gift. These were made in Wales by the Pembrokeshire Glass Studio and the ear wires are Sterling silver.

Jade Maori pendant – I bought this in a hostel in Christchurch, NZ

When I travelled in New Zealand I was always impressed by the beautiful Jade pendants you can buy in a lot of gift shops. I bought this swirl in a hostel in Christchurch on the South Island. They had a little glass cabinet where they displayed different designs and it took me ages to decide. Before I started designing my own jewellery I wore this a lot. I love it, it brings back happy memories. I still regard New Zealand as my spiritual home.

Silver spoon pendant. Present from my dad.

Making pendants out of silver cutlery has become very popular with some designers. This pendant was a silver spoon and my dad bought this one for me from one of the stalls at the Cologne Christmas market. I like its simplicity.

Murano pendant – bought by my husband in Ischia.

Italy is famous for Murano glass and you can buy Murano glass designs in a lot of gift shop. This pendant was a gift by my husband when we were honeymooning in Ischia. Ischia is well worth a visit – it’s beautiful. I hope we will go back one day. We really enjoyed our time there. The five star hotel “La Punta Molino” obviously made our stay special. I don’t know if we could afford to stay there again though!

Earrings bought in Ischia – can’t remember, but I think I bought these myself.

When I saw these earrings I had to buy them – also from Ischia.

Murano glass pendant – bought in Italy.

Murano glass ring – bought in Italy.

More Murano glass – can’t remember if my husband bought these two pieces or I did. Both are beautiful and kind of match. We got these on our holiday at the Tuscan Riviera – a truly awful experience. I blogged about it here.

Celtic Cat Brooch and matching earrings – present from my mum.

More cats. This Celtic cat brooch and earring set was another present from my mum and she must have bought it from Past Times (as it says on the box).

Cat pendant – bought by my husband in a gift shop in Bath.

And finally – this super cute cat pendant. Last year we went to Bath with my sister and arrived a bit late due to a massive traffic jam near Newport. So we didn’t have much time to go window shopping. When I saw this pendant I fell in love with it and my lovely husband bought it for me. It’s made from pewter and designed in Cornwall by St Justin.

That’s the lot – I hope you enjoyed reading this post and had a little glimpse into my jewellery collection. Feel free to comment on or share this post. And don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter.

Thanks for reading.

Helen White

I am a bilingual journalist, jewellery designer, tutor, and translator – and I am passionate about cats.